A Father Figure in every sense of the word
by Beloved
Summary: JoyceGiles hetfic


A Father Figure- In Every Sense Of The Word   
Sapphire actually wrote this, 'coz I - with GCSE's coming up, did not have time. So, thanks Sapph!  
This is Part Three in The Matchmaker Series  
Sequel to Accidental Matchmaking   
After Giles saves Buffy, Mrs Summers is *really* grateful  
  
Buffy sat down on the hospital bed, allowing her mother to fuss over her for once, checking her temperature, examining the rash of bruises down her arms. She didn't feel them...much. Her ego was feeling worse than the lead weights that were her limbs.   
Giles lay in a nearby room, equally battered - if not more (well, he probably would be - he not having the supernatural Slayer ability to heal quickly). If he had not been there and staked the vampire that had crept up on her when she was beating up the other three, she'd be dead by now, or a member of the undead - many vamps had the 'ever so original' idea of attempting to vamp her, strangely enough. Why had she missed it this time? Damn!  
Angel stood at the foot of Giles' bed, running his eyes over the various machines that he was attached to. Giles was going to be OK, but he had taken quite a beating, and the hospital needed to keep a close eye on him. He was sleeping peacefully for now, as he had been sedated. His face, though calm, bore quite a few angry red gashes and swollen purple bruises. Angel was dismayed that Giles had been drawn into the fight, but he and Buffy had been severely outnumbered. Giles had jumped in to help. If he had not done so, Angel would have lost Buffy.   
'I'll have to remember to thank him for that later,' Angel thought as he watched the heart monitor bleep and waver. His pulse was steady. Angel's enhanced hearing picked up the near silent drips of the morphine that was slowly being poured into Giles' body. He was not going to wake for a while - and anyway, he deserved the rest. 'Go back to Buffy,' he told himself, 'Giles is going to be OK'.  
The doctor was strapping up Buffy's ankle carefully, giving support to where the tendon had been ripped from the bone. Buffy did not seem to be bothered. She knew that it would heal quickly. She had an icepack strapped to her left shoulder, her cuts and bruises now cleaned and antisepticed. She was bored, and was not enjoying all the fussing that her mother was making at all - in fact, it seemed to be annoying her. When Joyce had asked for the story of what had happened, Buffy had told about how Giles had saved her from a biting. Her mother had been obviously impressed. Joyce had had a soft spot for Giles ever since that night when those enchanted chocolate bars had made them, well, far too frisky for Buffy to want to dwell on.  
Angel walked into the room slowly and silently, wishing to avoid any confrontation with the doctors. He felt Buffy pick up at his presence. They exchanged smiles. He missed her when he was in LA, especially since they were 'just friends' now. He thought fleetingly of the last time Buffy had come to see him in LA, and of the Mohra demon.......... He shook off that train of thought, wanting to focus completely on Buffy, and how she was.   
The doctor finished fitting the ankle support, and both him and Buffy could tell that Joyce wanted to go and see Giles. Angel's presence allowed her to slip away.  
Angel surveyed Buffy's shoulder and ankle, and their new dressings - his own wounds had been causing him pain, but of course, he did not dare seek any medical attention in-case the doctors discovered that he was not all that he seemed to be. Buffy lay quietly, secretly enjoying his gaze.   
"Are you OK?" he asked her.  
"Fine," she replied a little testily.  
  
Giles woke groggily, suddenly aware that his surroundings were predominantly white. Something bleeped steadily beside him and he felt a big headache coming on. A soft voice broke through his confusion. "Giles? Can you hear me? It's Joyce, remember?" he remembered - if a little murkily. 'That's Buffy's Mum,' he thought.   
"How are you feeling?" she asked him, her voice was gentle, caring. She did not seem to feel awkward around him. A relief.   
"I think I'm all here, just about" he replied.   
She smiled. "Thank you. For saving my daughter's life," then it was his turn to smile, if a little sleepily.   
"It's my job,"  
"I know, but you're like a father to her, the only father figure she has in her life, and much better than her real father. Thank you for that."  
Giles did not really know what to say to her, he was a little flustered (and yet flattered) by her admission. He loved Buffy like a daughter, that much was true, and so of course he could not help but respect and admire her. She was a girl - correction, a young woman who had been through a lot.   
Protectively, if not a little hesitantly, Joyce took his hand in her own and her eyes smiled gently at him.   
He noticed how, like Buffy, her blonde hair fell about her face, and her eyes expressed all the deep emotion hidden inside. And when she leaned over and kissed him, how her eyes shut, as if to preserve the moment. Giles was happy. Very happy.  
Buffy leaned on Angel as she carefully adjusted her weight onto her good ankle. Angel was, as always, gentle and protective with her as they slowly made their way to Giles' room. Buffy was worried about him, even though she knew that both Angel and her Mum had checked on him. But that was Buffy for you, always taking an active part in everything, needing to see everything with her own eyes.   
Angel could smell her hair as a piece hung near to his face.  
'Apples. I like that. She always looks great, smells great. I hate that every minute that I am with her I have to resist the temptation to take her into my arms and never let go.'   
They reached the door of Giles' room and Buffy stared through the window in amazement. There, with their arms locked around each other in a warm embrace, were her mother and her mentor, her father figure Giles. Kissing passionately.   
Angel saw too, and so said to her, "I think they're both fine don't you?"  
As they walked slowly back to Buffy's room, Angel muttered under his breath "That's three couples down. One more to go." The final thought that we hear from him is 'Not that there's much hope for Buffy and I.....' 


End file.
